Crowd psychology

A Quick Guide to Crowdfunding

Alan Crabbe, with yours truly and husband Ben Cooper just behind him :)

The inaugural Creative Mornings Sydney kicked off this morning with a talk by Pozible co-founder Alan Crabbe on the reality of crowdfunding and the benefits of his particular platform, the largest in Australia.

Crowdfunding was loosely quoted as meaning “to get heaps of people to chip in to do something epic”!

In a nutshell, the benefits of crowdfunding (apart from the much-needed cash) include:
• an engaged audience
• proof of concept
• social media integration (Vimeo, bookmarking and blogging functions)
• leverage (for brands and further investment)

See Kevin Kelly’s concept of the ‘1000 True Fans’ (“a circle of diehard fans which can provide you with a living”) and how they are so crucial in the ongoing success of your efforts. And so need to be supported as such.

Tips for the kinds of things that work on Pozible are:
• having an existing fanbase (Facebook, Twitter)
• word of mouth
• local organisations and communities
• influential people and recognition (make those who have helped you known on your project)
• visual appeal
• the personal and real
• unique offerings in return
• video

Stuart Bowen, behind the short, stop motion animation project Woody, raised over $12K (from an $11K goal) in first batch on Pozible and almost $6K (from a $5,500 goal) in a followup call for finishing funds. His video is testament to how a well-produced video can work well within a great pitch. At the same time, he went for (and got) Emerging Filmmaker funding from Screen NSW.

His advice is to budget properly first and ask for it all in one hit, with even a little slush factored in.

Given his aim is for a large festival release for Woody after completion, he offers a “Supporter and Crew Screening” online with an HD download after the festival shelf-life.

Whilst the size of Pozible’s project base is smaller than Kickstarter’s – currently numbering 230 projects versus 2,500 – and even IndieGogo, the benefits of Pozible were described as:
• hands-on support and advice
• smaller cut taken by the platform (5-7.5%)
• contributions made in AUD
• building awareness amongst your Australian home base, much like the release of a film on home soil first.

This entry was posted
on Friday, May 4th, 2012 at 3:09 pm and is filed under my articles.
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